Xtreme Kool Letterz
Certain letterz of the English alphabetz are just "kewler" than others. As such, many peoplez will intentionalli mizzpel wordz by xubztituting ðese letterz, in the hopez that this will draw moar attentshun from young peoplez and make the rezult look moar youþ-oriented. Whether this actually works on the youth crowd is debatable; this is a pop-culture phenomenon that comes and goes like many other fads, sometimes losing its appeal almost immediately out of the gate. Although, when it is used, it is often Played for Laughs to point out marketing groups that fail to understand an audience or, more often, weak attempts to seem hip to the younger generation. The most common substitutionz are: * "K" in place of a hard "C" (like in Mortal Kombat and Korn) ** Note that this is often used to give characters that "medieval", "germanic", or "Soviet Russia" tinge. In actual German, however, spelling things with "C" instead of K (or Z, often seen in circuses spelling themselves "Circus" instead of the dictionary's "Zirkus") would have the exact same effect, or make words look old-fashioned (because they were written with C in former times). ** The reversal, substituting "C" instead of "K," is also very common in the Hip Hop community. ** Substituting "ck" for hard "c", especially at ends of words, also has a Phantasy Spelling flavor. * "X" substituted for "Ex," especially in the word "Extreme," or just slapped onto a name for no apparent reason. ** Also, "ix" substituted for "ics" or "icks" at the end of a word. * "Y" instead of "I" in the myddle of a word. * "I" instead of "Y" at the veri end of a word. * "Z" instead of "S" at the end of plural wordz. * "A" substituted for "er" or "or" at the end of a word. * Spelling "cool" as "kool" or "kewl". * Anything with Added Alliterative Appeal, such as "Kool Kids". Less-common variantz include: * Letters 2 Numbers, like "2" in the place of "to" or "too". * Phonetic spelling; for example, inserting "-shun" in place of "-tion" or its kin: "Acshun!" * Substituting letters from foreign alphabets in place of English letters, regardless of whether that letter has any similarity in pronunciation or meaning. Interestingly, this trope tends to favor letters constructed primarily from hard straight lines and sharp angles — "X," "K," "Z," so on. These letters are also worth many points in English-language Scrabble, though examples of this trope would probably not be considered legal words. This can also extend to acronyms/abbreviations/initializations to make them more memorable, even if the chosen letter isn't, technically, the one in the original word. "X-Tensible Markup Language," for example, is easier to remember by its initialization of "XML" than "EML". "Leet speak" (or "1337") can be considered this trope played to extremes, where almost every normal letter is replaced by some form of "extreme" counterpart, which to those unfamiliar with the meme can vary anywhere from "slightly different" to "utterly unreadable," depending on how "hardcore" the user wishes to appear; it's believed that leet originated from the crackingnote community, which may explain why it's never spread beyond circles of computer geeks (and online gamers). "Text speak," originating in IM and a popular shorthand for use with mobile phones, is similar to "1337," though the hardcore consider it a different language. One possible justification for Xtreme Kool Letterz in Real Life is that, at least in the United States, "common words" cannot be trademarked as-is, but deliberate misspellings can. The overall trope is Older Than Television, and possibly Older Than Radio, with deliberate misspellings being used for humor at least since the Victorian era. (And back then, of course, semiliteracy was such a problem that many otherwise articulate peopleunintentionally misspelled words, making this trope not only comical but also satirical.) In academic study of English, this is known as "sensational spelling". Category:Tropes